E.ON has today announced its plans to construct a new highly efficient coal fired power station in the Antwerp harbour area of Belgium. The new plant will cost approx 1.5 billion EUR to develop and will have a capacity of 1.100 Megawatt (MW). The new state-of-the-art power plant will have an efficiency of approx. 46% - a top class figure for coal fired power plants. CO2 emissions will be approx. 25 % lower compared to the average of the existing coal fired plants in Belgium. Like all the other E.ON new build projects, the plant will also be carbon capture-ready. E.ON is working on future technologies for capturing CO2 group wide to realize coal fired power plants without CO2 emissions.

The new power plant will strengthen E.ON’s role in the Belgian energy market considerably. The site for the new plant was chosen because of its deep water facilities at Antwerp port. It is also close-by to big energy users like the chemical industry make the location in Belgium very attractive. As a Combined Heat and Power-plant the new power station additionally supplies both industry and households with steam and heat.

E.ON CEO Wulf H. Bernotat: “Modern coal fired power stations will continue to play an important role in a well balanced energy mix – side by side with gas, nuclear and renewable energy. We need to ensure our investments make a lasting improvement to the supply security, efficiency and environmental friendliness of Europe’s energy infrastructure. Coal has an important role to play in our future energy mix and therefore has to become as efficient and clean as possible. The new generation of our power plants is an important step towards that aim.”